December 25, 2009

I have a confession to make. I always felt a little inferior as a fiber artist due to my lack of ability to knit. Now mind you, it didn't slow me down at all in the confidence arena....after all, I have lived life to its fullest 45 years without having learned to knit. But now.....when I visit my local yarn shop I no longer have to hang my head like a failure. I can proudly announce that I DO know how to knit, but I PREFER to crochet.

I do not remember how I began crocheting. No one in my life crocheted. I think it may have been an activity that helped me earn a Girl Scout badge. Nonetheless.....my earliest memories are from about 3rd or 4th grade. I wanted to make a granny square, but didn't know how, so I kept going around and around (increasing and increasing) until I ended up with a beautiful ruffly granny doily (I should probably write up a pattern for that!). I made an especially pretty one out of dazzle yarn (variegated with hues of purple and green) for my grandma and she put it in an equally ruffly china dish with a candle on it. It remained on her coffee table in her fancy Victorian parlor for 15 years until grandpa sold the house. I believe it was her love of my creation that gave me the confidence to continue crocheting without any guidance or patterns. This is probably one reason why I've always been an out of the box thinker/creator.

When I was in High School I met my husband and instantly bonded with his mother who was a crocheter extraordinaire (and still is). She taught me to read patterns and encouraged me to borrow many of her patterns for my projects. The rest is history......

When Chelsea learned to knit a few years ago I admit I picked up a couple needles and tried but my knitting was all twisted. I now know I was holding my yarn in the wrong hand, I was holding my needles wrong and throwing the yarn the wrong way around the needles....quite a disaster. I immediately ditched knitting and began a race with Chelsea. I crocheted several pairs of slippers and at least a dozen hats while she worked diligently on knitting ONE sock. I felt justified by not learning to knit. Crocheting was much faster and more satisfying.

Today I cleared another hurdle on my list of things to accomplish in this life. I can now knit! I still prefer to crochet and have some cool new crochet ideas that Chelsea and I are working on for the New Year. We will keep you up to date on our progress. We will also be un-merging her Crochet Collection website and her blog very soon. We will have plenty of new Crochet Accessory Items for sale this year....very exciting!

Merry Christmas!Today, Christmas 2009, mom became an all around accomplished fiber artist! Not only can she spin yarn, felt yarn, and crochet yarn...she can KNIT it too! After years of frustration with knitting she picked up a learn to knit DVD at the library Monday. Within minutes of starting the dvd mom was knitting successfully! Little did she know that all these years she was yarning over the wrong way. But even so, mom states that she still prefers crochet to knitting (I can confirm that fact: She crocheted dad a hat yesterday and is crocheting him slippers now too!). Way to go mom! Here is to learning yet another lifelong skill before the new year!

December 24, 2009

It's that time of the year again! As like most years I had high hopes to crochet something for everyone, but that didn't happen. Fortunately mom was a little more industrious than I was and crocheted all of us kids something special.

The pattern base is the Kaleidoscope Cutie pattern, but she modified it to fit snugly to the head so the little kids can wear them under their winter coat hoods while playing outside. Mom made my brother, Jacob, and I slippers for our gift, since we tend to wear them out so quickly. They're toasty warm (I'm wearing mine now!) and I really enjoy having something warm and snug to wear on my feet. Many thanks to mom, you have no idea how much we appreciate and love you!!

Throughout the month of January we are going to be introducing some new products! We are very excited about these and cannot wait to share what we have up our sleeves.